Kreuz Market

If 2013 was the year of the new barbecue joint, 2014 will be the year of barbecue expansion. Some legendary Texas barbecue stalwarts who for decades were happy to be one-offs are looking to write their sequels. Southside Market (1882), in Elgin, Kreuz Market (1900) and Black’s BBQ (1932), in Lockhart, and Louie Mueller Barbecue (1949), in Taylor, will all expand their brands to a second location this year. Also included in this boom are…

Bryan, Texas is about to get another barbecue joint, and it’s a legendary one. Keith Schmidt of Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas says they will build the second location of Kreuz Market over a hundred miles from Lockhart along Highway 6 in Bryan. It’ll be built just north of the College Station city limits right in front of the Best Western and next to an IHOP. They’re hoping to finalize the design drawings this week…

Pitmaster: Kreuz Market, opened 1900 (current location since 1999) Age: 51 Smoker: Wood-fired offset smoker Wood: Post Oak The following is reprinted from the January 2014 issue of Texas Monthly, and also includes additional material from the interview taken on October 5, 2013. Kreuz Market is the most famous name in the most famous barbecue city in Texas. Founded in 1900, it has for decades been an exemplar of the classic German meat-market style of Texas barbecue and…

We wanted to keep this renowned spot at the top of our list, where it’s been since our very first barbecue story, in 1973. But after repeated visits by various staffers, we had to be honest: we couldn’t. The brisket was consistently disappointing. The scanty fat on the “fatty” was opaque and sinewy, the meat looked like shredded wheat, and the smoke was noticeably lacking on one visit too many. The shoulder clod was tender,…

The closest some Dallasites will get to a Central Texas barbecue experience could well be ordering meat by the pound at Lockhart Smokehouse. The similarity to Kreuz Market, in Lockhart, isn’t an accident. Co-owner Jill Bergus is part of the Schmidt family, who run Kreuz Market, and she and her partner (and husband), Jeff, wanted to strive for that Central Texas vibe. Customers place their orders in the back in full view of the cutting…

Two years ago, I took a road trip with two friends and stopped at ten joints in a single day. Our final stop was Kreuz, and it did not disappoint. I was hoping to strike gold on this trip where Kreuz was again the tenth stop on a epic day of barbecue’ing. Roy Perez is the pitmaster here, and he was tending a tasty pit on this day. We opted for a link, an end…